I'm not trying to argue which distribution model is best, or whether one should avoid distributions altogether. That's messy, complicated, and full of personal variables for each individual.
I'm just trying to correct the notion that somehow a distro is an "app store" that "inserts itself" between the software and its users. A distribution is an attempt to make lots of disparate pieces of software "work together", at varying degrees. Varying degrees of modification may or may not factor into that. On one extreme is perhaps just a collection of entirely disjoint software, without anything attaching those pieces of software together. On the other extreme is perhaps something like the BSDs. Arch and Debian sit somewhere in between, at either side.
Thoughtful people can certainly disagree about what the correct degree of "work together" or modification is.
On r/linux it's well known that Qt is not free software. It's that kind of information that gets passed down generation to generation although no longer being relevant.
I'm just trying to correct the notion that somehow a distro is an "app store" that "inserts itself" between the software and its users. A distribution is an attempt to make lots of disparate pieces of software "work together", at varying degrees. Varying degrees of modification may or may not factor into that. On one extreme is perhaps just a collection of entirely disjoint software, without anything attaching those pieces of software together. On the other extreme is perhaps something like the BSDs. Arch and Debian sit somewhere in between, at either side.
Thoughtful people can certainly disagree about what the correct degree of "work together" or modification is.